Three Cheers for Sweethearts [Frerard AU]

PART II: Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 – I WRITE TRAGEDIES NOT SINS

Mr. Burner gave us scripts.

He told us he wanted the scene assignments to be random, so he took each side and put them face down on the table at the back of the room. There were eight scenes and five groups: options for everyone.

Mr. Burner cut straight to the chase. "There will inevitably be some gender-bending-"

The class groaned.

"Don't whine about the opposite gender! Some of those sides are from Twelfth Night! Hayley, get one for your group."

Hayley got up, and I noticed her bright orange hair was a lot shorter. She had gotten it cut up to her ears, and I wasn't sure that it was doing her any favors. As I liked to say, whatever made you happy.

She took the packet on the far left side of the table and glanced at the front of it, made a face, and started to put it back down.

"Ah-ah-ah! You looked, so that one's yours!"

Hayley sighed, but with a hint of a smile in it. Walking back to her group, she showed it to Ashley and Bret, who both rolled their eyes and reluctantly took a copy each.

"Don't show the other groups yet!" Mr. Burner abruptly announced. He was always one for extra suspense. "Tom, one for you guys!"

Tom, Amy, and Vanessa all came up to pick. Tom's light brown hair stuck to his head, and his matching eyes flicked between his options. I noticed that his chin was starting to collect some stubble and subconsciously touched my own. I wasn't anywhere close. Amy always wore heavy eyeliner and had her thick, dark hair cloaking her back and the sides of her face. Vanessa, on the other hand, had (probably not natural) platinum blonde hair with bright blue tips. She was tall – especially today of course; she was wearing 6-inch wedges so my perspective was thrown off. Tom chose a scene and grinned at the text he read. Amy and Vanessa exchanged a look of boredom and lead the way back to where they were standing before. Mr. Burner called on Mikey for us.

We let him go up alone to claim one. He looked at the front of the page he held, and I tried to read his expression to get any hint at how good or bad it would be. But you can guess how much expression was on his face.

Mr. Burner called up Brendon with his always-perfectly-cut hair that surrounded his abnormally long forehead as Mikey sat back down. The three of us stared at him. He legitimately didn't notice our eyes on him.

It took until Brendon, Ryan, Kitty, and Jack were sitting and celebrating the scene they got for us to ask Mikey which scene was ours. "Mikey."

He almost looked surprised for a second, like he honestly didn't have the slightest idea we were in the room until then, and handed over the packet of lines.

It was from Romeo and Juliet. I skimmed through the roles to see that we would need two boys and two girls for it - Romeo and Benvolio, Juliet and the Nurse. I looked at the others grimly. "Two of us have to play girls," I whispered, as to keep from distracting anyone else.

After Anette, Kristen, and Lacey took their scene, Mr. Burner clapped his hands for our attention. Every one of us was talking about our scene selections.

"OKAAAY! Take five to cast the roles, and let me know if your scene has too many or too few characters!"

I passed the pages to Frank, who skimmed them and passed them to Austin. Collectively, we sighed, puffing our cheeks out in exasperation. We had four pages of terror in front of us: the scene where Romeo and Juliet fall in love, then realize they are supposed to hate each other.